Homework, night 3
Homework went well, and, in spite of VeryTiredKids, I had no wish to engage in homicide. I got Elf to do her tallies of chairs, tables, lamps, etc., around the house while I sat over Ben to make him practice writing his "B" and "b" and the timing on that worked out well.
Elf is reading SO much...more than I knew she could and more than I think she realized she could. She also has her 10 spelling words for the week pretty well memorized. I drilled her on them and she was GREAT; she's got memorized how many letters are in each and touches her fingers for the letters in a great tactile memory device. She's doing grammar about what is a sentence and what isn't, and handily did 4 workbook pages tonight without a single whine. She's able to write much more quickly and confidently...it's just tremendously COOL!
I got to go to Elf's 1st grade open house this morning and I ADORE her teacher even more. She's organized, has everything all structured, has spent the first week making lists of what the students can do to be "good helpers, good friends, and good students" then they all signed a promise to do those things...and in the last 20 minutes on Friday, the kids get "choice" time to do a puzzle or game or read or whatever...and on the bulletin board there is a little library book card pocket with each kid's name, and if they misbehave, the "20" card is replaced with at "15" and then a "10" card and so forth, reducing their "choice time"...it's really wonderful and nurturing and I'm SO pleased. Her grading system is excellent, she has high standards, she's energetic and just...really nice and kind and pleasant while still being no-nonsense.
I stopped in and saw Ben's sp.ed. resource lady, who said he'd seen the speech person for the first time and the speech person was like, "This kid had a speech problem???" I was like, "This kid still HAS a speech problem, but it IS tremendously, explosively better than even a month ago." That was exciting though.
I've given the school 2 copies of Matt Winter's book about Asperger's for teachers, which is short and to the point and has clear, quick information, as well as Paula Kluth's You're Gonna Love This Kid. His aide has been approved and should be there this wee or next; I'll be following up on that.
As a bonus (because the open house reminded me that they want us reading to the kids as part of their nightly homework) I got to sit down with the kids after homework and, instead of watching TV during dinner, read to them. We read Grimm's fairy tales from one of the books that was mine as a kid--4 or 6 of the 6 or 8 in the volume--and then I read them (for the first time) The Velveteen Rabbit (a book I didn't ever encounter till my early 20s and which still makes me teary).
It was a good night...AND I got to use Husband's computer and actually get an IM fix. Whoot!
Elf is reading SO much...more than I knew she could and more than I think she realized she could. She also has her 10 spelling words for the week pretty well memorized. I drilled her on them and she was GREAT; she's got memorized how many letters are in each and touches her fingers for the letters in a great tactile memory device. She's doing grammar about what is a sentence and what isn't, and handily did 4 workbook pages tonight without a single whine. She's able to write much more quickly and confidently...it's just tremendously COOL!
I got to go to Elf's 1st grade open house this morning and I ADORE her teacher even more. She's organized, has everything all structured, has spent the first week making lists of what the students can do to be "good helpers, good friends, and good students" then they all signed a promise to do those things...and in the last 20 minutes on Friday, the kids get "choice" time to do a puzzle or game or read or whatever...and on the bulletin board there is a little library book card pocket with each kid's name, and if they misbehave, the "20" card is replaced with at "15" and then a "10" card and so forth, reducing their "choice time"...it's really wonderful and nurturing and I'm SO pleased. Her grading system is excellent, she has high standards, she's energetic and just...really nice and kind and pleasant while still being no-nonsense.
I stopped in and saw Ben's sp.ed. resource lady, who said he'd seen the speech person for the first time and the speech person was like, "This kid had a speech problem???" I was like, "This kid still HAS a speech problem, but it IS tremendously, explosively better than even a month ago." That was exciting though.
I've given the school 2 copies of Matt Winter's book about Asperger's for teachers, which is short and to the point and has clear, quick information, as well as Paula Kluth's You're Gonna Love This Kid. His aide has been approved and should be there this wee or next; I'll be following up on that.
As a bonus (because the open house reminded me that they want us reading to the kids as part of their nightly homework) I got to sit down with the kids after homework and, instead of watching TV during dinner, read to them. We read Grimm's fairy tales from one of the books that was mine as a kid--4 or 6 of the 6 or 8 in the volume--and then I read them (for the first time) The Velveteen Rabbit (a book I didn't ever encounter till my early 20s and which still makes me teary).
It was a good night...AND I got to use Husband's computer and actually get an IM fix. Whoot!